Miffed with the certain recommendations in the parliamentary standing committee’s report on the Lokpal Bill, the CBI has decided to write to the department of personnel and training (DoPT) to register its disappointment.
According to sources, the agency will write to the DoPT on Tuesday and express its disappointment over the non-inclusion of the proposal of constituting a panel — comprising the Prime Minister, the Leader of Opposition and any other constitutional authority — for the selection of the agency’s director in the standing committee’s bill. The selection committee for the post of director, CBI, should be reconstituted to include the Prime Minister, the Leader of Opposition and any other constitutional authority, they added.
Sources further said, “The CBI director, in its letter to the DoPT, will also write about agency’s objection over the proposed amendment in section 173 of the Criminal Procedure Code, as recommended by the parliamentary committee.” According to committee’s recommendation, the agency, instead of submitting its investigation report in the court, it will submit to the Lokpal, sources said, adding this will adversely effect agency’s independence. As of now the agency submits its investigation report directly in the court under section 173 of the CrPC. The proposed amendment in this section of the CrPC is highly disappointing for the agency officials, sources added.
The agency will also express its unhappiness over the committee’s recommendation of the initiation of a preliminary enquiry (PE) — currently a precursor to filing of an FIR by the CBI — by Lokpal into a complaint mandatory before handing over it to the CBI, sources said.